Living Large In Tiny Gyms

Small Colleges Offer The Chance To Play Basketball Strictly For The Love Of The Game.

December 26, 1998|By Scott Merkin, Tribune Staff Writer.

The basketball spun away from St. Ambrose's Jason Sweeney, just as the game was slipping away from his team on a recent Saturday afternoon on St. Xavier University's court in Chicago.

Sweeney's quick lunge for the rebound knocked him out of bounds and placed him in a curiously dangerous predicament--leaping onto a stage lined with gym mats about 2 feet behind the baseline and into the middle of temporary metal bleachers filled with fans.

A stage on the baseline? Temporary metal bleachers? Not exactly the images conjured up by a college basketball court.

Then again, there aren't many college basketball courts like the one at St. Xavier.

"I've seen guys run full speed right into the wall or crash into that stage at the other end," Cougars point guard Jeremy Holmes said, recalling some memorable moments in his team's unique gym. "You could definitely say we have a home-court advantage."

The Cougars' tiny facility is the exception rather than the rule among teams in the Chicago Collegiate Athletic Conference. But the little gem is also a symbol of the spirited play and excitement that characterizes small-college basketball in this area.

When you venture out to a game or a practice at St. Xavier, the University of St. Francis in Joliet or Olivet Nazarene in Bourbonnais, for example, you won't see any agents cruising the campus looking for future NBA stars.

That's because you won't see any future NBA stars.

The players compete on partial scholarships, taking advantage of state grants as opposed to shoe deals from Nike or Adidas. There's no worry about illegal gifts from overzealous alumni or unsupervised trips to strip joints. The athletes are more concerned about the next bus ride into Indiana or keeping their grade-point averages healthy enough to impress on the job market.

There are no frills drawing these players and coaches into this level of basketball. They are competing purely for the love of the game.

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St. Xavier coach Tom O'Malley is finishing practice in preparation for the next day's St. Ambrose game. He runs a drill geared toward defending high picks before sending one of his players to the free throw line to make two consecutive shots and end the three-hour session.

The entire team, O'Malley included, seems to accept that their court is no bigger than most elementary school gymnasiums.

"When I first saw this place on my visit, I really thought it was smaller than my grade school," Holmes, a graduate of Blue Island Eisenhower, said with a laugh.

The 16 players on the Cougars' roster have no problem with the 2-foot perimeter surrounding the floor, serving as a minuscule out-of-bounds area. They don't mind navigating the stage at one end or getting up close and personal with the fans on most loose-ball scrambles.

They don't care that the team benches seem better suited for a bus stop, nor do they worry about the gym's capacity being somewhere between 250 and 300 people. The Cougars just count on a sellout for every home game, along with some very interesting experiences.

"My family comes to every game and they were sitting right there one time last season," Holmes recalled, nodding toward the left corner of the gym. "I was trying to save a long pass and dove for it--right into the middle of my family. I didn't save the ball but we laughed about it and talked briefly before they sent me back on the court."

Forward Matt Zelenc, a Bremen grad, says the fans compensate for their lack of numbers with enthusiasm.

"This place gets pretty rowdy when they get going," he said. "It's also kind of funny to see fans sitting two or three deep in folding chairs out in the hallway, looking in through the doors to watch the game."

Construction on a new gym at St. Xavier is well under way, just a few hundred yards from where the Cougars are now playing. The new facility is scheduled to open with a Christmas tournament next year.

"We would ultimately like to host some sort of high school tournament," St. Xavier Athletic Director Lynn O'Linski said, mindful that most CCAC team draw players by word of mouth from local high school teams.

"Basically, St. Xavier was once an all-girls school and the guys are playing in a girls gymnasium."

The Cougars' new home court might be a little fancier, with a seating capacity of about 2,400, but don't expect much difference in the team itself. The group will remain committed to full-court defense and a nails-tough work ethic as taught by O'Malley, a 30-year veteran of the local high school battles at Leo, Reavis and Evergreen Park. And O'Malley has the perfect players to fit his system--"all-conference, maybe even local all-area players," as Zelenc describes them, who are also "maybe a step slow, not great jumpers or just never got noticed in high school."

But dismiss them as glorified recreation-league players at your peril.